After School Snippet
by AmyNChan
Summary: This is a birthday tribute to PFTones3482, and I hope she likes it ! * * Some friendship Carlos D.A. I think. XD


_**AmyNChan: Okay… I tried, but I don't think I succeeded very well. ^^;**_

_**D.A.: Little known fact, Amy used to research things that frightened her when she was my age.**_

_**AmyNChan: Yup. That's where my wealth of knowledge about vampire bats comes from. XD**_

_**Carlos: Shouldn't we get moving and say you don't own MSB? All this waiting is driving me **__**batty**__**! XD**_

"_Carlos_…" the entire class groaned at yet another of the Mexican boy's terrible puns. The jokster of the group shrugged his peers' well-meaning laughter off with a goofy grin and returned to packing up for the day. He packed away his notebook and pencil, as well as…

"Hey, D.A., isn't this…?" he asked, turning around. However, the rest of the class had already turned to their own conversations and Carlos was barely able to see the bookworm of the classroom slip out of the door. Curiously, the boy flipped the book over in his hand. "'_Horrific Tales and Where They Come From_'?"

Carlos scratched his head. Why would D.A. have a book on horror stories? Well, she _did_ research anything she found even remotely interesting. From the digestive system to the food chain to chemical reactions. But horror stories?

Shrugging off his curiosity for the moment and deciding that he had better _get kraken_, Carlos simply slipped the book into his bag. He would return the book tomorrow when he saw her in class. He bid Tim and Ralphie goodbye and headed home, thinking about the fact that he was grateful there was no homework tonight.

It was a good day to be Carlos.

* * *

Dorothy Ann walked to her house quickly, very eager to read that new book she had borrowed from the library. So eager was she that she managed to make it to her house almost five minutes faster than usual. She entered the house and greeted her mother and sister with a smile and warm tidings. Both could immediately sense that the girl was about to run up the stairs and into her room to curl up with a new book.

The two sighed together at Dorothy Ann's predictable patterns. Predictable, but they loved her all the same.

The blonde haired girl easily made her way to her room and closed the door gently behind her, placing her bag of books carefully upon her bed. She was so _excited_ to read her new story and figure out why people were so petrified of vampire bats. After becoming one for a little while, she could not see the danger in them. They preyed upon cows, goats, and other livestock and often lived in places where it was warm in climate. How stories took place in Transylvania was a mystery to her.

A mystery she was all too eager to unravel with the pages of a good book.

D.A. frowned as she dug into her bag. She was absolutely _sure_ she had placed it in there this morning. She had _definitely_ taken it to school. She was simply _positive_ she had left it in the classroom for today's field trip—a lesson she had learned from the incident with Ralphie and baseball game. And she had brought it out to read the introduction, but after that…

D.A.'s eyes widened. She did not remember putting the book back in her bag. She and Keisha had started talking about today's field trip and what they had planned for the weekend. D.A. did not put the book back in her bag at all.

It was still sitting on her desk in Ms. Frizzle's classroom.

The young girl practically _flew_ out of her room and to the sitting area where her mother and sister were talking. After letting them know that she had to run back to school to get something—which they correctly assumed was that mystery book she had wanted to read—D.A. hurried out of the house and made the trek back to school, intent on finding her book before the classroom was locked for the weekend.

* * *

Carlos had his hands behind his head and was looking leisurely at the sky as he walked. Mikey was in his computer club and his father was out, so there was no real need to hurry home. It was not like he had any homework to do anyway. Carlos grinned at the thought, then tuned his mind to other matters.

_Maybe I can read that book D.A. was reading… _he mused, seeing as he had a lot of free time. Now, why he thought of reading D.A.'s book instead of playing one of his numerous videogames, he never would get the chance to think upon. At that moment, something collided with him which knocked them both to the ground.

"Uf…" a familiar voice groaned as Carlos made to stand up. Sure enough, on the ground was the girl who had been occupying his thoughts mere moments before. He offered a hand for her, which she gratefully accepted.

"Thanks. Sorry, Carlos, I'm in a bit of a hurry," D.A. apologized before dashing off. Carlos, who had been about to speak, blinked. He turned around to see D.A. almost sprinting for the school, and after a few moments of debate, decided it would be more interesting to follow her.

After all, why wait until tomorrow what you can do today?

* * *

D.A. panted for air as she finally made it to the school gate. To her immense relief, it did not appear to be closed yet. Satisfied that she had made it, she began climbing the steps to the school, opening the door without the obstacle of a lock.

She walked through the familiar halls, finding her way quickly to the classroom she had exited only half an hour before. She turned on the knob.

Locked.

With a sigh, she turned around to find the janitor or someone with the keys. She did not, however, expect to see a familiar classmate standing _right_ behind her.

"_Carlos_," she accused, massaging her heart. Of course she knew that simply rubbing one's chest did almost nothing for the heart after a scare, but it made her feel better anyways to repeat the action. She sighed as the boy held up his hands.

"I didn't even say anything!" he defended himself. D.A. sighed. It was not his fault that she had jumped. Well, he could have at least _warned _her that he was behind her. "I wanted to give you this."

D.A. looked in his hands at her book. A smile broke out on her face and her eyes lit up with happiness.

"Thanks, Carlos! Where was it?" she asked as she took the book from him. She watched as the boy shrugged with a grin.

"You could say the book was _in its own world_," the boy joked. D.A. wanted to deadpan, but the relief of having her book back coupled with the horrible joke forced her to laugh. Carlos grinned in response. "You left it on your desk. I was going to give it back to you in school tomorrow, but you ran into me so I thought 'why not'?"

"Well, thank you, Carlos," D.A. smiled again, holding her book and shaking her head at Carlos's obvious confusion. "You wanna walk home together?"

"Sure, anything to beat this boredom," Carlos agreed, hefting his bag over his shoulder once more. "You gonna have enough time to read that?"

"Of course," D.A. said. The two turned and walked out of the school for the second time, one much slower and the other with a bit more quickness in his step. "And Carlos?"

"Yeah, D.A.?"

"Today's Friday."

_**Carlos: FRIDAY! I can go home and play videogames or build something or—**_

_**D.A.: I can finish my book!**_

_**AmyNChan: And maybe I can actually do something productive. XDD By the way, all of you have an assignment: Please go and wish PFTones3482 a very happy birthday! *^_^***_

_**HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY FRIEND!**_


End file.
